


Clueless

by clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst and Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9212114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: [...]If anything sounded like a breakup speech,thisdid, and they weren’t eventogether.(Yet, insisted the tiny part of him that refused to give up hope, no matter how many times she turned him down.)(After seven years of its incessant intrusions, Chat may or may not have spent a great deal of time wishing that voice would justshut up. She wasn’t interested, she wasn’tgoingto be interested, and the sooner he accepted that, the sooner he could move on.)(Or, In Which Chat is Proven Wrong.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> cross-posted from my tumblr on request.

“…Hey, Chat?”

“Yeah?”

“I was… thinking.”

“…Thinking?”

“About… about….”

Chat swallowed, anxiety swelling fast in his chest. Ladybug never sounded this anxious. About _anything_. What could have brought this on? What even was ‘this’?

“About…” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and then quickly back up to the midnight sky when she found him looking back. “After this is all over.”

“…‘This’?” Chat echoed again, sinking his teeth into the inside of his cheek.

If anything sounded like a breakup speech, _this_ did, and they weren’t even _together_.

( _Yet_ , insisted the tiny part of him that refused to give up hope, no matter how many times she turned him down.)

(After seven years of its incessant intrusions, Chat may or may not have spent a great deal of time wishing that voice would just _shut up_. She wasn’t interested, she wasn’t _going_ to be interested, and the sooner he accepted that, the sooner he could move on.)

“…After Hawkmoth,” said Ladybug, pensive and achingly distant. “After… after we aren’t needed anymore.”

“Oh.”

Chat was equally certain that he really didn’t want to hear whatever her next words were as he was that she needed to say them, whatever they were.

He kept his mouth shut.

Ladybug took a stiff breath. “I was thinking… that we should meet up.”

Chat blinked, that awful, indestructible little part of him perking up in hope.

( _Maybe she’s going to say—_

Chat cut off that line of thought before it could ruin him. He wasn’t going to hope for impossible—)

“A-and go to the movies or something, as civilians.”

…Oh.

She…

She said it.

His ears rang, his head spun, and that demonic little sliver of hope exploded like an atom bomb, radiation sparking in every corner of his psyche.

_Oh god._

She actually _said it_.

She went on, apparently unaware that those two little words had catapulted this entire night into a strange state of euphoric unreality for Chat. “I-I mean, only… only if you want to, but… I thought… maybe… maybe I could introduce you to my parents afterwards, and we-we could— Are you _crying?!”_

Chat furiously pressed the heels of his palms over his stinging eyes, making a noise in the back of his throat that was more of a wheeze than a laugh as she scrubbed her fist over his shoulder. “No, no, sorry, I’m… I’m okay. It’s not—… I’m not…”

He glanced up to find her glaring at him with the strangest, most endearing combination of horror, worry, and offense, and laughed again, managing to make it actually sound like a laugh this time.

“Sorry,” he said again, throat painfully tight out of sheer _relief_. “I just… I thought… I thought you wouldn’t…”

“…Thought I wouldn’t _what?”_ Ladybug wanted to know, her expression deepening.

“I thought… I thought I was going to lose you,” Chat admitted, smiling but too wrecked by the realization that he _wouldn’t_ to feel anything resembling shame. “I thought we’d beat him and I’d never— I’d never see you again.”

Ladybug thwapped him upside the head.

“You _dumb cat!”_ she spat, horror gaining the lead in her expression as Chat continued to half-laugh and half-sob. “If you’re that worried then _say something!”_

“You-you didn’t want—” he managed, shoving away the hints of tears once again. “You didn’t want to reveal our identities, so I didn’t want to press—”

She made a disgusted noise, thumping his head with her fist in emphasis. _“Then say you’re worried!_ Tell me _why_ you’re worried! I’m not unreasonable! _God_ , Chat…”

The last thump so gentle it wouldn’t have harmed perforated rice paper. 

Chat still bent his head under it, feeling the gentleness of her touch unraveling something very important in him.

(This. _This_ was why he could never manage to shut that voice up. This was why he never managed to move on.

Because she loved him, and it came spilling out of her at the most inconvenient times, picking him up when he needed it the most and the least — and it was always there, lurking under her smile, ready to trip him up when he thought he might finally gain a little distance from his hopeless crush.

She might never want what he wanted, but she never stopped lighting up whenever she saw him, either, and his heart was silly and wayward and all tied up in that smile.)

Ladybug sighed explosively and dug her fingers into his hair, stroking it as she mumbled, _“Now_ I feel bad for being worried over asking you out.”

…

Wait.

What?

He turned to stare at her, barely hearing her as she continued, “‘Thought you were going to lose me.’ You _dumbass_ , why _would_ you? Of _course_ we were going to meet up once we don’t have to worry about any complications—… What?”

Chat inhaled, paused, and then said, “You were… asking me out?”

He couldn’t see reds well in the dark, but the faint darkening of her cheeks and the way she rubbed the back of her head was unmistakable. “Oh, that… aheh…”

Even the hopeful little part of him couldn’t take this, the unadulterated emotion of it swelling at a frankly terrifying rate, everything she did rattling around the inside of his skull like he was simply a vessel for it all.

She glanced at him and then away, puffing her cheeks in embarrassment. “I mean, if you don’t want to that’s fine! I just… I know you had a crush on me when were kids and… you’re kind of amazing, and anyway, I thought you might not mind— Of course, you probably moved on a long time ago! Ahaheh… We could totally go out for movies and dinner as friends! That would be great too!“

Her arms, flailing between them as she babbled, abruptly snapped back into her lap as she blew a raspberry. One was released so she could scratch her cheek bashfully, which, combined with the shy glance she gave him, was a look that probably should have killed him with sheer cuteness.

Sadly, he was a little too busy BSODing to appreciate it.

She waited for a response three whole seconds before sighing again and dropping her hand. 

“Look,” she said a little defensively, and dug her knuckles into his side. “You can’t give me hell for this, because I’ll just remind you that you cried when I asked, okay? And we’ll go out and have fun as friends and we can forget this ever happened.”

“Ladybug…” he finally managed to put together. His voice sounded like he was waking from a long sleep. “I don’t know where you’ve been, but I’ve been… kind of… hopelessly in love with you for, like, seven years now.”

She stopped grinding her knuckles into his side to stare at him again.

“…What?”

He stared back, wondering how she’d somehow managed to miss him just _melting_ every time she smiled at him. 

“No, really, _where have you been?”_

She opened her mouth to answer, knitted her brow, and shut it again. “I. I don’t… know?” 

The staring contest lasted another few seconds and then Ladybug groaned, dropping her head into her hands.

“First I make you cry and now _this_ ,” she whined. “What next? Have I kicked your puppy and stolen your lunch, too?”

“Nope, just my heart.” 

(Some openings were just too good to ignore.)

She raised her head out of her hands and just… _looked_ at him.

Chat pulled out a shaky smile and rubbed the back of his burning neck. 

Ladybug hesitated for a second, and then: “…Does this mean I can kiss you?”

The hand on the back of Chat’s neck stopped, mostly because the rest of him stopped too.

“… _What?”_

“I asked if that meant I could kiss you,” Ladybug repeated obligingly, eyes huge and luminous. “Because I want to.”

( _Are you sure you would like to delete all 12 variations of ‘No’?_ wondered his internal vocabulary.

 _Well, what the hell would I need them for?_ Chat wondered right back.)

“Oh,” he croaked. “Y-yeah, sure.”

He wasn’t quite done hitting himself ( _seriously, could he sound any more casual?_ ) when Ladybug placed her hand over the one on the back of his neck and reeled him in.

Sweet.

The kiss was sweet.

Sweet and soft and just even gentler than her scolding had been, her fingers carding through his hair and toying with his ears, and Chat was _burning_ , all that hope flipped over into pure heat.

He was pretty sure she could feel how hard his heart was pounding in his mouth, and if she couldn’t there, then probably through his chest where she was trailing her fingers over it, gentle, gentle, _gentle_ with him while every last part of him clamored for her attention, needy and _wrecked_.

She hummed as she drew away, and Chat just about swooned into the place she vacated, feeling the warmth of her laugh on his neck as he nuzzled into her like an overly affectionate pet.

“Let’s go find Hawkmoth right now,” he mumbled, voice coming out thick and honeyed. “Let’s go kick his _ass_.”

“Oh my god, Chat.”

She sounded so affectionate, so _warm_ , and after a kiss like that, it was _devastating_. Chat slumped a little further into her side, slamming his eyes shut and almost whimpering.

He’d always been afraid of what that little voice of hope would do to him when it was inevitably proven entirely false, but he’d never contemplated what it might do to him if proven true.

He could take on the whole world right now. He could take on the whole world and _win_ , if that’s what she wanted. 

She didn’t ask it of him, though, as much of a pity as that was. 

“Silly kitty,” was all she said, kissing his nose and dropping her head on top of his in turn. “Silly, silly kitty. I’m sorry for making you worry. I didn’t realize you didn’t know.”

“‘S okay,” rasped the happy puddle half in her lap. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

“…So we _are_ gonna go take on Hawkmoth soon, right?”

“Oh my god.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [safe and sound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9218159) by [clairelutra (exosolarmoon)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra)




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